Lot

Lot (Hebrew: לוֹט, Loṭ; Arabic: لوط, Lūṭ; "Hidden, covered") was the nephew and brother in law of the patriarch, Abraham or Abram. He was the son of Abraham's brother Haran. (Genesis 11:27 ) He is remembered in Scripture (2Peter 2:7-9 (KJV)) as a righteous and Godly man who lived in an unrighteous and un-Godly community.

Contents

Family

Lot became Abraham's brother in law by the marriage of Nahor (Abraham's brother) to Milcah (Lot's sister), and also by the marriage of Abraham himself to Lot's other sister, Sarah.

Life

Canaan

Lot left the country of Haran on 15 Abib 2083 AM (25 April 1921 BC), with his uncle Abraham and their combined household. They traveled together for one summer in Canaan, and then wintered in Egypt when famine struck Canaan.

When the combined household returned to Canaan in the next spring, and specifically to Bethel, Lot and Abraham had too many animals for the same land to support them all. Abraham and Lot then agreed to separate. Lot decided to live in the plains of the Valley of Siddim (the Dead Sea), while Abraham stayed in the hill country.[1]

War

Lot went to live in Sodom. Then in 2091 AM (1913 BC), King Bera of Sodom, along with four other petty kings, rebelled against Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, who had established his dominion thirteen years before. In the next year (2092 AM), Chedorlaomer attacked the rebellious kings in the War of the Ten Kings. He plundered Sodom and took Lot and many other civilians hostage.

Abraham heard about Lot's capture from an escapee from Sodom. Abraham armed 318 men of his household, called on three local Amorite confederates to help him, and gave chase. He successfully rescued Lot and recaptured all the plunder that Chedorlaomer had taken. Abraham took no spoil beyond his own troops' rations. Lot returned to Sodom and never saw Abraham again.[2]

Destruction of Sodom

In the spring of 2107 AM (1897 BC), two angels visited Lot in Sodom, where he had risen in the government and now sat on its city council. Several of the local residents demanded that Lot surrender his visitors to them for immoral purposes. Incredibly, Lot offered to let them abuse his daughters instead. Equally incredibly, they not only refused but also called Lot a "sojourner" and accused him of presuming to judge their behavior.

The angels struck the assailants blind, and then ordered Lot to take his family out of Sodom immediately. Lot's two sons-in-law refused to leave, so Lot left with his wife and his two daughters.

A holocaust of fire and burning sulfur destroyed Sodom and three neighboring cities in the Valley of Siddim and also created the Dead Sea. Lot's wife did not survive; she looked back and was transformed into salt.[3] (Genesis 19:1-29 )

Incest

Lot and his daughters escaped to Zoar and from there journeyed into the mountains. Then his daughters conspired together to cause their father to become inebriated and father a child with each one. The elder daughter bore Lot a son named Moab, and the younger bore another son named Ammon.[4] (Genesis 19:30-38 ) Each of these men was a progenitor of a people that became bitter enemies of the Israelites in later centuries.